Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Cheapest advertising ever.

September 1, 2013 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

I’m like any other customers of yours. I often can’t remember the name of a shop that I want to recommend to a friend. Which means all the good will built up during my visit gets lost before it becomes profit-building word of mouth.

Make sure that never happens in your consignment or resale shop. Ideally, you’ll have chatted with everyone who comes in and be able to comfortably offer your card, “here, take our card to remember us by. See you again soon!”

Yes, business cards work well. But what else can you add?

If you sell Continue Reading »

Posted in Really good ideas, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments »

Inspiration in desk piles.

September 1, 2013 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

I’ve been spending the holiday weekend going through and actually DOING SOMETHING ABOUT all the notes and catalog pages and so on on my desk. (Yeh, I know, I’m a bundle of laughs and a real party animal, aren’t I?)

In amongst the October 2012 notes and the Christmas craft ideas yanked from a 1996 magazine (none of which I have felt moved in the past 17 years to do) were a couple of gems. Here’s one.

A customer of a consignment or resale or thrift shop wrote (somewhere, who knows? I take lousy notes)

How many times have we come out of [Shop Name] doing the happy dance!?!

Doin' the Happy Dance in front of my Favorite Consignment Shop!Would this not be a terrific photo op for YOUR shop? Seize the opportunity, when you have an excited and happy customer in front of you, to get her to pose, in front of your shop, with her purchase on/ in a bag/ on a hanger/ on the mover’s dolly, while dancing/ jumping/ cartwheeling in joy?

Hopefully, your shop name’s in the picture too, but if not, just add it with Picmonkey or Ribbet or whatever.

Think how many ways you can use this:

  • As a Facebook entry
  • In a Facebook Album: Our happy customers!
  • Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, all those sites
  • As a photo in your entry or on your shop’s community bulletin board
  • On your blog (as a category!)
  • On your web site
  • In a slide show for your web site, a commercial* for your shop
  • As a print ad
  • As an uploaded photo on your Yelp etc reviews

Heck, you could even invite the year’s Happy Shoppers to a brunch event in your shop one Sunday to thank them! Talk about word of mouth!

 
* Ask a photographer friend about model releases.

Posted in Really good ideas, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged , , , , , , |

Facebook Do’s and Don’ts

August 30, 2013 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Where you can buy "social media butterfly blue" nail polishSome of my consignment, thrift, resale buddies are looking forward to a long weekend… or at least as long as a weekend can be, having chosen retail as a career. Enjoy!

If you take the “Labor” Continue Reading »

Posted in 5- Minute Fixes, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged | 2 Comments »

Tell me WHY.

August 29, 2013 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Telling someone to do something, without giving a reason why, only works for toddlers. And not very well at that.

So if you want your shoppers, your donors, your sellers or your consignors to DO SOMETHING, anything, for goodness’ sake, take a few moments to

tell them WHY.

What's in it for ME, ask all your Facebook friends.

Sure, they should think of you. But remind them why it’s so important. Keep a list of reasons to donate to your nonprofit, or sell to your buy-outright, or consign with your consignment shop, and use them in rotation. Bonus: watching your stats, you might even figure out which message means the most to your audience, and which means more traffic through your shop.

For example, just adding on a few words to the above message would “paint a picture” that would remain top-of-mind in your FB fans’ minds when they’re thinking of donating. Now, the NFP that posted this status update was a consultee of mine, so I know a little about what good donations to their stores do. So I’d suggest a few more words along the lines of:

  • Your gently-used dining room set could help finance a wheelchair for a sick grandparent.
  • The things your kids have outgrown could go back to third grade with a child who has nothing that fits.
  • Loved that cocktail dress 3 years ago? Let us turn it into tuition at business school for an eager-to-learn teen.

Posted in 5- Minute Fixes, Not-for-Profit Resale, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged , , , |

Do your staffers “share”?

August 28, 2013 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Here's how to share

I’ve shared this with you before… share it with your employees and volunteers.

If your consignment, resale or thrift shop uses Facebook to gain attention for the business, do your staffers share these posts with their FB friends?

Why not?

Of course, you can’t “make” them intermingle their professional life with their personal life… and no doubt there are staffers in some shops whose Facebook “personality” would fry your brains…

but if you expect them to recommend your shop to their friends and to speak well of the place they work, wouldn’t you expect them to boost the business once in a while on their social media?

Why not suggest it, next time you’re doling out those bonuses for beating the sales figures you’ve set as a goal for the day, week, month?

“Gosh, look at what we’ve profited from increased business this week. Bet it was those shares you guys gave the shop on your Facebook pages… well-done!

Or, of course, the alternative. “Gee, we didn’t make our projections last month. I’m just wondering if we’ve all been sharing the social media about the shop that [I / we/ Sam over there] works so hard on… what do you think? A “share” here and there? Could that be your social media motto to keep your job rewarding?”

BTW, click through on the graphic above to louisem.com. I think you’ll find her entire blog most helpful, if you’re spending a lot of time making social media pay off in your shop.

So what do you think? Is asking those who work with you to help promote the shop online, just as you expect them to speak well and often about the shop in real life, a reasonable thing for a boss to do? Or are there reasons you don’t want to ask this of them? Comment below, if you have an opinion you’d like to… well…

share.

Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »